In a report released this month, EPA’s Office of Inspector General lays out in no uncertain terms that EPA’s regulation of land-applied biosolids “had weaknesses and may not fully protect human health and the environment.” This “sewage sludge” is “solid, semisolid or liquid residue generated during the treatment of domestic sewage.” After processing at wastewater […]
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A dark new climate report was released on Black Friday, a day usually reserved for the kind of news someone wants overlooked. The Fourth National Climate Assessment was produced by 13 federal agencies including the Department of the Interior, EPA, NOAA, and the Department of Commerce. Together with experts from non-governmental science institutions, they make up […]
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Troubling and significant declines in monarch butterfly populations in Florida have occured over the last 30+years, according to a research team from the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, part of the Florida Museum of Natural History. A paper by the FLA team was published this summer in the Journal of Natural History, and reports […]
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The New York Times reported this week that nitrate contamination of private wells in agricultural regions around the Midwest is turning water quality and agricultural regulations into focal points of many local and statewide elections. In communities surrounding the agricultural regions of Wisconsin, Iowa, and beyond, private wells are failing water quality standards, often by […]
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Much will be said about the EPA’s October 31, 2018 decision to extend for two more years the conditional registration of the three dicamba-based herbicides registered for post-emergence, “over the top” (OTT) applications on soybeans and cotton. The basics of the EPA’s decision are simple and not entirely meaningless in terms of reducing the extent […]
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Note to Readers: Steve Smith, Chairman and founder of the Save Our Crops Coalition and R+D Director of Red Gold (a major midwest tomato processor), has been actively engaged in the evolution and approval of dicamba-resistant crops. He has raised concern — and more recently alarm — over the damage done to non-target crops, trees, […]
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Climate change is a looming threat for all farmers, but some crops in particular are “in the crosshairs” of this global environmental crisis. NPR reports in their “The Salt” food and farming series that five crops in particular may face the biggest challenges. They highlight wheat, peaches, coffee, corn, and almonds. See below for a […]
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With neonicotinoid insecticides under fire for contributing to pollinator decline, Dow AgroSciences is pushing its sulfoxaflor insecticide as an alternative. As Environmental Health News reports, Dow applied to the EPA for an expansion of the registration of sulfoxaflor to allow use on “rice, avocados, residential ornamentals and at tree farms and greenhouses.” But, is this new […]
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In the latest study revealing the extent of declines in global insect populations, researchers working in Puerto Rico’s Luquillo rainforest have documented a “bottom-up trophic cascade” triggered by large declines in the biomass and abundance of arthropods, the family of animals that include insects and spiders. Populations of insectivorous predators like lizards, frogs, and birds […]
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By: Rachel Benbrook and Dr. Charles Benbrook Are bees finally going to catch a break? Amidst lots of bad news about the decline of managed honeybees and other wild pollinators, the Seattle Times reports this week on an innovative new approach to boost pollinator health. It involves some out-of-the-box science from Paul Stamets, a mycologist from […]
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